If Love Sets You Free
by Miss Hachigatsu Kuroi
Summary: My first shounen ai: MitRu: Someone died, someone mourns... all because of a bet well, his PRIDE is at fault too!


A/N: Technically, this is not my first yaoi attempt, but this is the first fic that actually got posted. MitRu everyone! Enjoy…

**Mitsui's POV:**

I'm here in the cemetery, mourning over the death of someone I loved. And can you believe that this someone is a guy like myself? Yes ladies and gentlemen, I, Mitsui Hisashi, one of the greatest players, if I may say so myself, best three-point shooter in Kanagawa-ken was once in love with a guy. No, make that _am in love with a guy_. Yeah, say whatever you want, but be fair, he was good-looking. In fact, he was a school heartthrob. Mysterious, yes he really is.

Who am I talking about? None other that the super rookie, Rukawa Kaede. Yes, he's dead; and a part of it was my fault. Yes, you've read it right. I am –somehow- responsible for his death. You want to know our story? Well then, I'll gladly share it to you. It can serve as a warning – for you not to commit the same mistake I did.

It all started the first day of school. As you already know, the previous year our group had a fight with Miyagi, so I was in the hospital. My troop paid me a little visit that afternoon and from the looks of their faces, they probably faced a group of cowards who is obviously no match for them. Why did I have that conclusion? Well, they all had bruises and all, nothing new. They narrated what exactly happened to them. A new guy – a freshman to be exact – did this to them. So it was _a _new guy; meaning he was alone. 'He's good' I thought to myself 'maybe I can recruit him for the troop.' I asked for the identity of the freshman and they said that his name was Rukawa Kaede.

So that's how I got to know him. I just thought that he was interesting, just imagine taking on my troop alone. I didn't have a crush on him, like what some may think. I was straight back then, or so I thought. Anyway, to continue with the story, I met him personally for the first time when my troop along with Tetsuo's came to ruin our school's basketball club – Miyagi's team – 'Oh, sweet revenge!' was all on my mind. I mean, if I can't be in the team, there should be no team.

I'm selfish? Well, that's what he once said to me. He referring to Kaede not Miyagi – misunderstandings can occur, right? So you know pretty well what happened when we put our plan to action, right? I asked forgiveness to Anzai-sensei then I was part of the team again. What a happy moment!

From then, every practice we would meet not really minding each other's presence - since I'm not a gangster anymore, I erased the thought of Kaede joining my troop. One time, he asked for a one-on-one. Of course I said yes, how can I reject the guy's first and only request? That's the only time he talked to me before we became more than friends.

Before the Inter High Competitions, things between us were like things between him and our other teammates – except Sakuragi, of course. Having a pair of Sakuragi and Kaede is like having black and white, summer and winter, coffee and milk for short two opposite things. If I was pretty suspicious, I'd think that something's going on between the two of them because more often than sometimes, opposite things help each other and they come in one pack. But I wasn't suspicious, so we can't do anything about that.

Anyway, normal things happened so I'll just skip to when my friends invited me to some place 'great' because they knew that I'd be leaving for IH soon. When we arrived to that _great_ place, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I agreed to a bet. If my memory is functioning well, I think it stared with me bragging that I could make _anyone _fall for me. I didn't mean anyone as in literally anyone, specifically I meant any girl. But being simple-minded creatures that they are, they dared me to make Kaede fall for me. He has to be my boyfriend when we come back from the IH. That was the dare.

I didn't want to be called "not the man of my words" so I agreed. I never expected that my pride could affect someone so deeply. I mean, at least I'll try. Just imagine, _him _falling for_ me_? He has this cheering squad full of girls that goes ga-ga over him, so the possibility of him becoming my boyfriend was 0. But like what I always hear from people, expect the unexpected. Who would have thought that the gorgeous guy was a bisexual? I didn't. It never occurred to me that I might be bisexual, what more other people? So with the thought of winning the IH and how to make Kaede fall for me, we left for Hiroshima.

After our game with Toyotama, the team decided to celebrate our victory. This is the time I was planning to take action about the dare. Everyone was enjoying, but I can't see him anywhere. I thought maybe he was exhausted with the game and decided to sleep. I mean, he loves to sleep.

He's even helping me with the dare if he's always alone. I mean, I can always say anything to him without the chance of getting humiliated because the way I knew him, he doesn't talk to anyone about gossips or anything that might ruin a person's reputation.

I saw him enter our room and decided to take a peek what he'll do there. My best guess is that he'll sleep. To my surprise, there were candles lighted in front of him and his face was different. In normal cases he's expressionless, but I saw a shocked expression in him. He stood up and circled something on the calendar, fixed his things and went to sleep. I went inside, since the room is for the whole team, and saw that he encircled a date on the calendar. That day is the finals of the IH.

The next days, I tried to spend time with him. We practiced together, we ate together, we do sorts of things together. He became more open to me. He'd share some stuff about him and I'd do the same. He once said that he has the ability to see the future, and that he was afraid to love because he's trapped in his past experience about love. I didn't take it seriously; I mean what if he's just making things up, besides I don't care what happened to him in the past. But I was only too numb to realize what he meant until it was too late.

One time, we were having a snack when…

"Sempai, why are you doing this?"

It took me a while to answer… "Well, I… I want to be the one to… connect you to the world."

"But, I don't need it… I need…"

"what? You need what?"

"Never mind." He said flatly.

"Come on… you know you can always tell me anything…"

He was having second thoughts but he said it anyway "…I want you."

I was shocked at what he said. I mean, he was becoming my friend; but I never thought he'd make the first move. The dare was all that came into my mind. How I wanted to see the looks on their faces when they found out that I have succeeded. Only to find out that this will have a very big consequence.

"…I guess we're on the same boat" came my reply.

"You mean…"

"Yeah…"

So that's when he officially became my boyfriend. He didn't care that he was the uke (uke is the feminine one right? Please correct me if I'm wrong) and I didn't realize that I was starting to fall for him.

We were very close to each other and our teammates noticed this. Since we both agreed that no one will know about what's between us until after the IH, we would always lie that "he's just a friend."

Then our other games with prestigious teams came. Remember when he was almost blinded? I was worried like hell. Damn that guy for almost ruining his ice blue eyes. We managed to win our games and make it to the finals. So without Sakuragi, we're going to face the final match to determine the Champion of the IH this year.

We lost and you all know that. After the game, my friends came to tell me not to take it to hard. I was really sad back then, but I didn't want them to see that so I changed the topic to the dare.

"At least I've proven that not even the ice cold Rukawa Kaede can't resist the charm of Mitsui Hisashi." I bragged.

"Yeah! You really pulled it off Mit-chan!"

"Now, you can break up with the guy… I mean, if the school finds out about your "relationship", you'd be ruined for sure."

"Of course! What do you think of me, stupid? I'll never fall for a guy like me!" I assured them.

"What are you waiting for? Find the gullible freshman and dump him. We'll be waiting for you in Kanagawa. 'Ja!" Then they left.

After that conversation, I realized that I can't dump Kaede. Much worse is that, I've actually enjoyed his company and I want to continue what we have and I'm even willing to declare it to the world. I don't care if my friends are against it, but if they can't be happy for me, they're not real friends. So I decided to look for my love and make things permanent.

"Mitsui-sempai!" Ayako shouted to get my attention. "I've been looking everywhere for you!" she said panting.

"Why? What's the matter? And by the way, have you seen Kaede? I've been looking for him for quite some time now."

"Sempai… Rukawa was…"

"Was…?"

"He was running…"

"Running?"

"Yes! And… a… car ran over him!"

"WHAT! Where is he? Is he ok? Who's the bastard that ran over him?"

"He's in a critical condition… but we found him holding this. It was addressed to you."

I took what Ayako was holding but I wanted to see Kaede more than anything.

"I need to see him."

When we arrived at the hospital, it was too late. He was dead and there's nothing I can do. In fact, there was nothing I ever did for him. I clenched my fist and there was still the paper Ayako gave me.

_Sempai, _

_I saw that all of this was going to happened, but I still learned to love you when you started spending time with me. I wanted to convince myself that what I saw is not going to happened, but when I heard you talking with your friends, I finally faced the truth. But if I'd be given the chance, I'll still love you though I know that I'll die._

_Kaede._

Tears flowed from my eyes. I was crying like there was no tomorrow. The night I saw him sitting in a room with candles lighted, that was the night when he saw what's going to happened. Despite that, he still accepted me. The circle on the calendar, it marked the day he died.

That's our story. I know I should face the fact that he's gone but it's hard to say goodbye. He once said that he was trapped in his past experience. Now, I'm the one who's trapped – trapped in the memories of the Inter High and how he accepted my desire to win the bet. Sometimes I would dream about him, about us. There is a campfire-like burning, we're sitting in front of it and he murmurs that "If love sets you free, then what we had could have been love." Having that relationship with me, almost set him free from his past experience so he wasn't afraid to love no matter what the consequence is.

…_Owari…_

A/N: Thanks so much for reading, now pretty please give a review and tell me if I can be a yaoi writer as well...


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